Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system and device for context-sensitive identification of regions of interest in a medical image.
Description of the Prior Art
Medical imaging processes such as PET provide functional image data representing the functioning of a patient's body, while imaging processes such as MRI or x-ray CT provide anatomical image data, representing the patient's anatomy. It is common to evaluate corresponding anatomical and functional data together, to match functional information with anatomical localisation.
Clinical assessment of an oncological PET functional scan begins with a clinician performing a visual assessment of radiotracer distribution in order to identify abnormal patterns of uptake which may be indicative of malignant lesions or other pathologies.
This clinical review (“read”) of functional PET data by a trained clinician is typically supported by an assessment of co-acquired anatomical CT data. The combined PET/CT assessment is a sophisticated process requiring a lot of concentration by the clinician and a responsive and flexible software application to support the read with minimal interruptions to the flow of concentration of the clinician.
Once the clinician has formed a clear understanding of the patient condition from the image data, their findings must be documented in a report for a referring physician to inform the treatment decision. Creation of such documentation is typically a cumbersome task that does not in itself require expert clinical reasoning. Expert clinical reasoning is required for the assessment, but the report-writing rather requires an ability to describe synthetically and clearly the location and classification of any abnormalities along with the clinical impression based on these findings.
During the interpretation of the patient image data, the act of making measurements interrupts the clinician during the clinical read, due to the need to manipulate software and perform the relevant measurements.
The case is then revisited for the reporting of the findings, typically via a dictated report.
The format of such reports varies considerably from one institution to another, despite communal efforts toward standardization. A common step in the creation of the report is the description of the clinical findings such as perceived abnormalities. It would be useful to provide a standard report format for consistency and to aid the referring physician who may receive such reports from several sources.
In a typical workflow, the clinician first identifies features within the patient image data which appear to represent lesions. Appropriate measurements are typically then performed on the image features, such as lesion size; tracer uptake. The clinician then reviews the findings to describe the case and uses a dictation system to transcribe this description into a report. The clinician will also re-read the report once it is created. The report may be created by another person who has not read the case and only formats the report for the clinician.
Such multiple reviews of a single patient data set are inefficient. There is also the possibility of errors in the transcription, such as a lesion reported with an incorrect measurement value; a lesion identified to the wrong organ, etc.